To fight or not to fight in September? That is the question that will be on Amir Khan’s head should he defeat Chris Algieri May 29th. Because should he fight in September, it would most likely be against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Mayweather is coming off a very good performance against Manny Pacquiao in a fight that could lead to upwards of 5 million pay-per-view buys. Khan didn’t fight in September because of his religious obligations, so he missed out on the fight in 2014. The schedule for Ramadan, this year is June 17 to July 17th. So if he comes out unscathed in an Algieri fight, it would still give him 7-8 weeks to prepare for a fight.
So Khan is changing his tune a bit for September.
“I’m not ruling out fighting in September because it’s possible that it could happen,” Khan said to ESPN. “Mayweather only fights in mid-September and Ramadan will be a little earlier this year, which helps. It gives me enough time to get the training done. So it can happen in September.”
Mayweather has mentioned after his win over Pacquiao that his fight in September would be his last fight. Khan has been wanting the fight for the last four years, so this could possibly be his last chance to get Mayweather in the ring and there are thing Khan sees in Mayweather he can exploit.
“Mayweather is very skillful and patient and tries to make his opponents make mistakes,” Khan added. “His work rate dropped tremendously [against Pacquiao] because of his age. “There were a few things there that I’d not seen before. When he takes a good shot he does panic. The only way to catch Floyd is with speed and explosiveness, which Manny had, but Manny didn’t use that enough in the fight.”
But Khan says he has to take care of business first with Chris Algieri.
“Chris Algieri is no joke. I can’t go into this fight thinking it will be easy. I can’t take this fight lightly, and then lose the fight and all my dreams will be shattered to fight the big names of boxing.”
